


Entangled

by happyaspie, moonchild2593



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Conversations, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Memories, Civil War Happened but They Talked it Out Like Adults, Drugs, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, I Don't Even Know, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Medical Doctor Bruce Banner, Memories, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Not Canon Compliant, Not Infinity Saga Compliant, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Platonic Bed Sharing, Platonic Cuddling, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Sex, Stephen Strange is Helping, Supportive May Parker (Spider-Man), This is a Piping Hot Mess but I Love it Anyway, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Trauma, Waterboarding, and, mentions of:, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22684543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonchild2593/pseuds/moonchild2593
Summary: Tony calls Spider-man in for an assist during an alien attack and almost instantly regrets it when, together, they are hit with an orb of unearthly magic that forces them to see into each other's past through shared memories. Both the good and the bad. This leads to a lot of unexpected feelings, a few revelations and a long conversation about whether or not things between them will ever be the same again.
Relationships: Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 24
Kudos: 218





	1. When You Find Beauty (Lost in Your Memory)

**Author's Note:**

> A very, _very_ special thanks goes out to [moonchild2593](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonchild2593/pseuds/moonchild2593), who helped me get this story out of my head and onto virtual paper with as little confusion as possible. I could not have done this without their proofreading, superb ideas, additions, comments, and support! ~Happyaspie
> 
> Chapter titles are from the song [Meant To Be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZr-ZJtNvE) by The Dose

The Avenger's had been called into action when a spaceship full of aliens had shown up out of nowhere. No one had any idea why they were there or what they wanted but they'd come filing out of the ship already shooting some sort of green glowing orbs from their fingertips, thus causing widespread panic and, of course, a great deal of chaos. After hours of trying to win the battle, Tony had ended up calling Spider-man in as a last resort. He really hadn't wanted to but they'd desperately needed the backup.

In an attempt to survey the current level of damage, Tony flew up into the air and scanned the area. As he did so, he spotted a flash of red and blue below him and sighed. "Kid! What are you doing over here? I thought I told you to stay on the perimeter and help with the stragglers."

"You did.", Peter replied as he swung from building to building webbing several of the creatures to the wall as he went. "... but Mr. Barton said he had it under control so I thought I would come to see if I could help you guys out over here instead."

Tony who was following behind, using his repulsors to eliminate each of the webbed up threats, rolled his eyes. "If we had needed your help over here then we would have--", he started before realizing that not only did the kid seem to be holding his own but he was also making his job a hell of a lot easier. "--Nevermind, just keep doing what you're doing but stay out of their line of fire we have no idea what these things are capable of _."_

"Yes, sir, Mr. Stark!", Peter cheerfully returned and continued to weave between the buildings and the glowing orbs the aliens were throwing in his direction. "Ha! Take that Mr. Alien!", he shouted as he caught another of the creatures in his webs followed by several more. "Did you see that, Mr. Stark! I got three of them at once! That was awesome!"

Shaking his head in amusement, Tony chucked at the kid's enthusiasm. "Sure, kid. Awesome.", he replied as Peter continued to ramble a play by play of everything he was doing. Then, just as he was about to tell the kid to slow down, Caps' voice came booming through the comms.

"Hey Tony, we've got the south side cleared. How are you fairing?", the soldier panted as he started to make his way back towards the center of the action. 

"Oh, just peachy. You know, if you ignore the fact that more of these damn things are coming out of the ship just as quickly as we take them out.", Tony clipped as he looked up and watched another wave of aliens exit the ship and start spread over the area.

"Sam, Wanda and I are heading your way. We can start wrangling them up over there and then maybe you could try and destroy the ship. Do you think you can handle something that?", Steve asked making Tony feel unreasonably annoyed.

"Yes, _I think I can handle something like that.",_ Tony mocked before bring his attention back to Peter. "You hear that Spider-kid? Play time's over. Time to head back to the Jet.", he instructed, not wanting the boy to be anywhere near where he was about to blow a huge spaceship into pieces, let alone be below it. 

"Are you sure, Mr. Stark? I could stay and help Captain Rogers.", he eagerly suggested without ever pausing in his actions. He had a good rhythm going and wasn't ready to stop. _It was fun._

Still hovering over the scene, Tony looked between the kid he was trying to get out of harm's way and the ship he meant to be demolishing with frustration. "Or... You could go back to the jet, as I asked you to and I'll call you if we need anything else.", he bit back with sarcasm as he watched the kid swing through a pack of the creatures narrowly avoiding being hit by their...whatever the hell it was they were shooting.

Still not ready to give in to his mentor's demands, Peter kept his momentum going by shooting a web towards the tallest building in the area, allowing himself to flip forward at a dizzying rate while whooping with excitement. "Ah, come on Mr. Stark! I've got this!" Peter tried to argue but he already knew that the man wasn't going let up.

"Spidey...", Tony growled lowly, hoping that it came off sounding just threatening enough to get the kid moving. Not that he'd expected things to have gone any other way. The kid listened about as well as a squirrel.

Having taken out everything within his reach, Peter turned around and started to swing back towards the jet. "Alright, alright, fine. I get it. I'm going.", he grumbled under his breath as he went.

Satisfied that the kid seemed to be heading in the right direction, Tony turned towards the sky and sighed in relief. "Hey there, Honeybear, care to join me in a game of Galaga?", Tony called out to Rhodey who had just arrived on the scene. "I call dibs on Player one."

Rhodes laughed as he hurridly flew towards the ruckus. "I've already got my quarter in the machine, Tony. You'll have to settle for player two.", he teased while covering his friend's back. "What _are_ these damn things?", he asked as he shot down several aliens, while expertly dodging their attacks.

"How should I know? They just showed up pissed off and started putting on the crappiest light show I've ever seen. It's not even dark yet.", Tony replied with humor before taking one more look below him to make sure that everyone had cleared the area directly below the ship. "FRIDAY, Up the power on the repulsors by thirty percent and detonate those EMPs.", Tony commanded and had just started firing towards what the AI had indicated was the weakest portion of the ship when he heard Peter's voice come crackling through the comms.

"Hey, uh... Mr. Stark? Um... I, uh, I might be in a little bit over my head here.", Peter stuttered out. His plan to lure a handful of the aliens away from the others as he was swinging back to the jet had backfired. Rather than gaining the attention of three or four of them, he'd ended up with over a dozen of them on his tail and had ended up cornered. Dodging the steady stream of orbs was taking all of his concentration and he couldn't seem to get himself out of the situation he'd gotten himself into. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, several of the creatures had begun to morph together, creating a larger version of its self and was already slowly building up a much larger orb in its hand. "Yeah. This is bad. Very, _very_ bad. Help?"

After looking between Rhodey who was rapidly firing towards the mostly powered down spaceship and the little blip on his HUD that was Peter, Tony took off towards the kid's location and was grateful when he saw the Vision flying in to take his place. There were times he wondered if the man could read his thoughts, though he didn't know why he'd want to. Even he didn't want to be in his head most of the time. "Alright, I'm coming, Spider-man. Just hold your ground until I get there.", he called out as he started to pick up some more speed.

"I'm closer, Tony. I've got him.", Steve offered but when Tony looked down below he could see the man's shield bouncing all over the place before returning to his arm only to be tossed out again. The soldier clearly wasn't in the position to give up his ground just yet and it wasn't even necessary, really. He was less than two minutes from where the AI was directing him.

"No, I've got him! You just keep playing frisbee without new friends over there. Knock 'em dead.", Tony replied, knowing that Rhodey and Vision could handle what he started. "Seriously, Cap, _Knock them dead_.", he quipped as he began to finally close in on Peter's location, getting there just in time to see largest of the creatures let go of the giant orb it had created. "Peter!", he frantically shouted as he managed to land between the creature and the kid just a few seconds too late.

The moment his feet had touched the ground, Tony raised a hand to fire but before the repulsor could go off, both he and Peter were struck by the green light sending them both flying backward into the wall, landing in a tangled pile of limbs. At about that same time, the spaceship finally blew into a million pieces causing the aliens to take off towards their damaged transport. 

With the spaceship taken care of, Rhodey was able to take off towards his friend's location while everyone else darted around in an attempt to eliminate the last of the remaining threats. "Shit. Tony? Peter?", he said as he rolled the two onto their backs in order to check their vitals. Though it seemed that both of them were already starting to come back to consciousness, Peter being the first to speak.

"Whoa, what happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck or maybe a train--", Peter began before suddenly remembering what had taken place moments before. "--oh my God, is Mr. Stark okay?", he shouted while trying to pull himself to sitting but before he could get all the way up, he saw Rhodey helping his wakeful mentor into an upright position and was able to breathe again. "Oh good. That's good. I'm just, I'm just going to lay down right here for a minute.", he breathlessly replied as he lowered himself back down on the concrete.

"I think the hell, you're not.", Rhodey replied before taking the teenager by the hands and pulling him up against the wall as well. "You're going straight to medical so that Bruce can take a look at you. Can you walk?"

After a few seconds of self-scrutiny, Peter decided that he was sore and tired but decidedly mobile and sighed. "I can walk."

~o~o~o~o~o~

Several hours later, both Peter and Tony had been released from medical and were free to go back to the penthouse to shower and change into more comfortable clothes. Peter had finished first and was sitting at the bar with a glass of juice when Tony rounded the corner. "You doing alright?", he asked out of concern despite the fact that they had both been deemed injury free just moments before.

"I'm fine, Mr. Stark. Just a headache.", Peter mumbled out tiredly from where he sat. 

"Well since you're fine, then we're going to talk about this.", Tony said as he walked towards where the boy had gotten up off of his stool and was nowstanding in front of him. "What were you thinking?", he asked.

However, when those words came out of Tony's mouth, Peter found himself no longer in the penthouse. Instead, he was in what appeared to be a desert resort. There was also an image of himself shivering on top of the jungle gym after the Vultures attack in the corner of his vision as if he were looking at a HUD. It all seemed strange because if _felt_ like a memory but at the same time, in the back of his head, _he knew_ he'd never been anywhere so exotic. Then, he heard Tony's voice saying, ' _What were you thinking!_ ', as a surge of anxiety swept through him before he reached for a drink with an arm that he vaguely recognized was not his. ' _The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons. I gotta take him down_.", he watched himself reply and suddenly the anxiety he'd been feeling was replaced by annoyance as he heard Tony's voice bite back. There were several more exchanges before the annoyance faded into indifference and he hopped into a convertible to drive off, ending the call and the imagery at the same time. 

It wasn't until he'd snapped back to the present, where Tony was snapping his finger in his face and calling his name, that he realized that what he had witnessed seemed to have been Tony's perspective from the night he'd chased down the arms dealers but that made no sense. It had felt exactly like a memory but it wasn't... it was more of a ' _not memory, memory_ ' and he didn't know how to explain that. "I'm sorry. That was, that was really weird.", Peter said as he shook the confusing thought out of his head. 

"What was really weird? What's going on, kid?", Tony pressed because the teenager had completely blanked on him. One minute he'd been fine and the next he'd been staring off into space. As if that hadn't been concerning enough, he'd had to say the kid's name three times before he responded. 

"I don't know how to explain it.", Peter complained but when Tony continued to look at him expectantly he tried. "It was like a memory but I was you.", he started before going into great detail about everything he's seen, heard and felt all the while watching the man's face become more and more concerned. "...I'm fine though, really. It was just... weird.", he lamely repeated for lack of a better word.

By the time Peter had finished his explanation, Tony's thoughts were already going a mile a minute. What the kid had described was definitely his memory and all he could think was that the aliens had somehow messed with the kid's head and it was scaring the shit out him. He knew all too well, what it was like to have your mind screwed around with and he wanted answers. "FRIDAY, get Banner up here, will you?"

It didn't take long for Bruce to make his way up to the penthouse. He sat down beside Peter on the couch and listened closely as the boy explained what had taken place a few minutes prior. Then he looked at his eyes and asked a few questions. When nothing seemed out of the ordinary he gave Peter a reassuring smiled and got up to go to talk to Tony who had been pacing in the kitchen for the last several minutes. "He's fine, Tony. Nothing's changed since I looked at him an hour ago. What about you. How do you feel?"

"Like my heads been put through a blender but that's nothing new. Let's talk about the kid. Are you sure he's okay?", Tony asked with worry etched deeply across his brow.

"He's fine, Tony.", Bruce assured. "We did a CT scan down in medical and there were no signs of a concussion or anything else. I repeat... He's fine."

Tony grunted in frustration and brought his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Soft science may not have been his area of expertise but he was well aware that the kid had already been checkout physically. That was not his current concern. "Yeah, but how do we know that the alien _whatever_ didn't mess with his head? Or mess with my head of that matter?", he clipped as he ran his hands through his hair.

One deep breath later, Bruce was running a hand over his tired eyes. "I get where you're coming from, Tony, I really do but there's no real evidence that anything like that is happening.", he said with a wave of his hand. He wasn't willing to jump to such wild conclusions based on one odd coincidence. Especially when it was so late and everyone involved was so physically drained. "Look at him. It's late and he's exhausted. He probably just zoned out for a minute.", he added as he looked towards Peter who looked five seconds from falling asleep on the couch.

As much as Tony wanted to let it go and agree that it was nothing, there was a niggling in the back of his head that just wouldn't allow it. Something just felt. _.. off._ "It was my memory, down to the last detail.", he tried to reason but the other man did nothing but sigh.

"Tony... Don't take this the wrong way but you haven't slept well in days and I really think you're starting to get paranoid.", Bruce said with minimal remorse. "If something else comes up, then by all means, call me but you both need to get some sleep.", he added as he picked up one of the newly prescribed bottles of medication off the counter and placed it in Tony's hand. "Take your pain medication and go to bed."

Once Bruce was out the door, Tony turned towards Peter who was still sitting on the couch trying to stay awake. "You sure you're okay, kid?", Tony asked as he rested a heavy hand top of the boy's head.

"Yeah. I mean, Dr. Banner's right. I am tired.", Peter replied even though he wasn't sure he believed that. It just sounded better than the alternative. He didn't want to think that an alien had been screwing with his head. "Maybe, maybe I'll just go to bed."

Tony nodded his head and watched as Peter began to stand up. "Sure. I'll be in the lab for a while so--."

Peter nodded his head and gave a half-hearted smile. "--I know. Good-night, Mr. Stark.", he replied before heading down the hall towards the guest room that had been slowly becoming his room over the last few months. Though as tired as he was, he lay awake for quite a while thinking and trying to decide what would happen if another ' _not memory-memory_ ' happened.

While Peter was laying in bed trying to sleep, Tony was down in the lab doing some research because in true Stark fashion... he simply couldn't let it go. He spent hours watching the video feed not only from their suites but also from every single surveillance camera in the area. He watched the aliens knock them into that wall from every angle but even with his AI's assistance, no new information was acquired. From there he moved on to learning what he could about the memory functions of the brain before finally giving in and going to bed just before three in the morning. 

Having not done much more than toss and turn all night, Peter got up early and was already sitting at the kitchen table finishing his second bowl of cereal when Tony came into the room. "Hey, Mr. Stark.", he said before lifting the bowl to drink down the remaining milk.

"'Morning, Kid.", Tony said as he casually walked over to counter and started the coffee maker. Despite not getting into bed until the wee hours of the morning, he'd woken up early and from that point forward, his brain wouldn't shut up so he'd resigned himself to being awake for the day. Besides, he'd gotten almost six hours and he was pretty sure that was his record for the week. Then as just as the coffee began to drip into carafe, he looked towards the still sleep disheveled kid and sighed. "Do you need anything?"

Peter glanced up for a second at the question and nodded his head. "Thank you, Mr. Stark but I'm, I'm good.", he replied with a cautious smile and then scrunched up his brow in concern when his mentor began to stare right through him.

At those words, Tony had been unexpectedly hit with something that felt an awful lot like a flashback. He was standing just outside of the press room at the compound looking up _at himself_ and could feel a frisson of anxiety running up his spine. _'You're good? How are you good?',_ he watched himself say and when he heard Peter's voice reply, he'd been, on some level, able to recognize that _he was Peter._ From there, he watched himself yank his glasses off of his face, he felt himself flinch. ' _You tuning me down? Better think about this. Look at that suit..._ ", he saw himself demand before calling the attention back to himself and demanding an answer. It was when he heard Peter's voice decline that he felt the anxiety that had been lingering in the background spike. Though, it receded the moment he saw his own features soften in front of him. ' _Okay, That's kind of a Springsteen-y, working-class hero vibe that I dig. Uh... Happy will take you home. Yeah?',_ heard himself say as he looked on and suddenly he was overtaken by a sense of pride like he'd never felt before. Then, the next thing he knew he was back in the penthouse with Peter standing directly in front of him.

"Mr. Stark?", Peter asked when it looked as though his mentor had blinked back to reality. "What did you see?"

Without any consideration, Tony turned back towards the kitchen. "Nothing. Don't worry about it.", he said because he was still sorting through what had just happened. He'd never realized how much he'd intimidated the kid that day but more pressing was the fact that now, he'd had a memory that didn't belong to him. 

Peter took several steps so that he was back to standing in front of Tony again "I know you saw something. What was it?", he asked with concern. There were a lot of things he'd never told Tony... some things that he'd never told anybody and this wasn't how he wanted anyone to find out about them. Some things were meant to be kept secret however, the man didn't seem to see it that way.

"I said don't worry about it.", Tony clipped as he tried to sidestep past where Peter had impeded his ability to get back to the coffee maker.

"I'm going to worry about it, Mr. Stark. It was _my_ memory!", Peter snapped. "That means it was private _to me_ and I have every right to know what it was! I told you what I saw!"

"Fine!", Tony curtly conceded. It was too early in the day for an argument. He'd not had a singular drop of coffee yet. "It was that day that Happy brought you to the compound and I asked you to become an Avenger. You felt--"

"--I know how I felt!", Peter shouted in interruption. While the subject of Tony's memory could have been worse, he still wasn't prepared to have an in-depth conversation about it. "I just wanted to know.", he quietly added before taking his bottom lip in between his teeth in a nervous gesture. "What happen's now?"

For a moment Tony considered the question. It was clear enough to him, that whatever the aliens had done to himself and Peter had cause them to somehow share memories with one another. It first crossed his mind that maybe he should call Wanda. He knew that she had some sort of fucked up degree in messing with people's heads but he wasn't sure he wanted to test her abilities. There was a small part of him that still didn't really trust her and that really only left Bruce. "I guess we go find Banner.", he sighed out, hoping that this would be enough for the man to at least consider that something was actually going on.

A few short minutes later, Peter and Tony were meeting Bruce in his lab. The man sat at his desk and nodded along as they spoke. Even he couldn't deny that each of them having a similar episode made things seem far less coincidental. "Well, Tony, I think you could be right. Maybe the aliens did do something to, I don't know... link your memories somehow.", he conceded after several seconds of thought.

"What do you think the chances are that this is going to keep happening?", Tony asked because he had nearly fifty years' worth of memories for the kid to potentially come across and most of them he would rather he didn't see. 

"I don't know.", Bruce replied with remorse. 

Growling in frustration, Tony threw his hands up in the air. "They hypothesize! Let's break this down. The first time was--"

"--Tony, you and I both know that two instances are hardly enough to start building hypothesis' on.", Bruce replied while running his hands through his hair. He wished he had more but this wasn't just outside of his expertise, it was brand new territory altogether. Outside of Wanda's abilities, there was no prior evidence that any other person, let alone alien race, possessed the power to affect people's minds.

"Do you have any idea how to undo whatever they did to us?", Peter asked hesitantly when Tony didn't ask any more questions. 

"I don't know that either.", Bruce said before leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. "... but I think I know a guy who might"

Tony's head snapped up in surprise. "You. The epitome of everything anti-social might _know a guy_.", Tony said with amusement even though he knew that it probably wasn't the best time for jokes. 

"Yes, Tony.", Bruce came back with mild annoyance. He liked to keep to himself, sure but he wasn't a _hermit_. "I met him after I got back from Sakaar. His name is Dr. Stephen Strange...", he said before going on to explain that the man in question had once been a renowned Nero-surgeon but had later become a master of the Mystic Arts and was currently the Proctor of the New York Sanctum.

Several seconds passed while Tony tried to process what his friend had just told him. "So what you're telling me is that you're ' _expert_ ' is a former Nero surgeon turned... _magician_?", he asked with a quirk of his brow and sighed when Bruce shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorceror... but yes", the other man corrected and then waited for the outburst that was sure to follow. He was not disappointed. 

"Fantastic. Aliens are a thing now, why not magic?", Tony replied with a wave of his hand but when Bruce continued to look at him unimpressed he sighed. "When can your mystical, magical wizard doctor get here."

Bruce leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure how well the pompous sorcerer and the arrogant billionaire would get alone and he wasn't super keen to find out. "I'll go talk to him myself and see what I can find out while you two try to relax.", he replied with a grimace. With any luck, he could go talk to the man himself and find out what he needed to know, thus eliminating the need for Tony to be in the same room with Strange. ... or so he hoped.

After that everyone went their separate ways. Tony went to the lab, his go-to distraction, while Peter went back to the penthouse to take a warm shower. Not that he needed one so much as he hoped that by allowing the water to run past his shoulder's he might be able to relieve himself of some of the tensenesses that refused to leave his body. The last twenty-four hours had been stressful and a shower felt like a reasonable way to decompress.

After stepping into the shower, Peter began to turn the knobs and was hit with an unexpected burst of cold water. With a sharp gasp, he squeezed his eyes shut as he was, without warning, surrounded by dozens of voices shouting at once in a language he couldn't decipher. His head... _no, Tony's_ head was being submerged into a large bucket of water, while a hand forcefully held it there. Then just as his lungs were beginning to burn from lack of oxygen, he felt his head being yanked back up, breaching the surface just long enough to take in a single deep breath before being submerged once again. Fear and conviction were coursing through his body as he heard Tony's thoughts race, ' _This is it. This is how I die._ ', before he felt a sharp electric shock in his chest, followed by a vision of light and the sound of a woman's voice, calling Tony's name. After that came another overly harsh tug at the back of his head but this time he was pulled all the way into a standing position. There were only a few seconds to register that he was in a dimly lit room surrounded by scowling men holding weapons before a burlap sack was pulled over his head. He could _smell_ the mildew from the bag as he was being blindly shoved towards an unknown location. Eventually, they paused and the bag was removed from his head leaving him to feel slightly nauseous as his eyes tried to adjust to the blinding light. 

Next thing Peter, knew he was sitting in the shower with his back pressed against the wall, trying to catch his breath. Logically, he knew that Tony had spent three months being held captive in Afghanistan. He knew that the man had refused to build them the missile they had been demanding and that, instead, he'd built his first arc reactor and the suit of armor that allowed him to escape but up until that moment, those were nothing but facts. He'd never taken the time to think about what that really looked like. ... or felt like and he was abruptly taken over by the urge to go find Tony. _He needed to see him._

Several minutes later, as Tony was working on yet another possible update to the latest Iron Man mark, he heard the door to the lab slide open and glanced up. "Pete?", he asked with concern as he watched Peter practically stumble into the room. "Shit. Are you, alright? What happened, kid?"

Still wide-eyed and shaking, Peter met eyes with his mentor and couldn't stop the tears that had begun to escape. "They, they hurt you. They _tortured_ you!", Peter cried out before practically collapsing into the man's arms. 

Unsure of what he was supposed to say to that, Tony wrapped his own arms around the kid and rested his cheek on the top of his head. "Yeah, Buddy. They did. That was a long time ago, though.", he said already feeling guilty. That was one of the many, _many_ things he'd hoped upon hope that the boy wouldn't be forced to witness.

"I'm so sorry.", Peter cried as he clung to the back of the man's shirt and took a few seconds to listen to the soothing rhythm of his heart. 

"What for, kid? If anyone should be sorry it should be me. You should have never had to see that.", Tony said with remorse. 

"...I'm just really sorry that you had to go through that. It, it was awful and--", Peter replied and it was then that Tony realized that there was more to these episodes that just seeing and feeling the other's memories. There seemed to be a personal aspect as well because Peter was reacting in a way that he never had. While he used to be struck by that memory on a regular basis it had never caused him to panic as Peter had. It had been intense. It still was, in fact, when he really thought about it, he could still _taste_ the stale water that had filled his mouth. Though, he supposed that was just how trauma worked. Those details would forever be ingrained in his mind. 

"--it made me who I am.", Tony said as he cut Peter off in his empathetic speech. He hated that the kid had the knowledge to _be empathetic_ towards the situation at all and wanted nothing more than to drop the subject. He knew he couldn't do that, though. Not when the boy had yet to stop shivering in his embrace. "Without that experience, I would have never made that first Iron Man suit. I would still be creating weapons of mass destruction and, well... I would have never met you, Buddy."

Peter nodded his head into the man's chest and with a deep breath, he tried to straighten his back and pull away from his firm grasp. "How often do you remember that?", he asked as he stared down at the floor.

"Anymore? Hardly ever.", Tony replied with a weak smile before reaching out to give the back of the kid's neck a gentle squeeze. "You good now?", he asked and when Peter gave him a slight nod of the head, he sighed. It was obvious that the boy was still uneasy. "Maybe we should head upstairs and eat some lunch. All I've had today is coffee and I know you can eat."

Once they were upstairs, they each threw together a sandwich and stood by the kitchen counters eating them. Neither of them really said anything as they ate. However, the moment that Tony was done, he brushed his hands together and looked at Peter who was well into his second sandwich. "So...", he said bringing the kid's attention to himself. "You want to go down to the lab with me when you're done?"

Not feeling ready to be alone again but also not sure that he possessed the mental capacity to do anything in the lab at the moment, Peter wasn't quite sure what to say. Then, deciding that he'd already hit the cap on vulnerability for the day he took a deep breath and made a request. "Can we maybe just... just stay here for a little while longer?", he hesitantly asked.

Glancing towards the door and the still frowning teenager standing in front of him, Tony nodded his head. "Sure, kiddo. How about a movie or something?

"Yeah, that's sounds good.", Peter replied with relief clearly lacing is tone. The right show could potentially become the perfect distraction and having the man close in case the unfavorable images returned sounded like a really good idea at the moment.

Tony smiled and gestured towards the television. "In that case, I guess, you had better go pick something.", he said and then followed Peter into the living room.

They had just gotten comfortable, with Tony sitting in the corner of the couch while Peter sat closely beside him when FRIDAY announced that their presence had been requested in the common area. For a second, the two of them simply looked at each other before getting up and making their way downstairs where Bruce was waiting for them, with Dr. strange by his side. 

Feeling as though he should be polite, Tony walked into the room and held his hand out towards Strange. "Hi, I'm Tony--"

"--I know who you are.", Strange said with a bored tone before moving his gaze so that it fell on the teenager behind the billionaire's back. "... and you must be Peter."

"Yes, sir. I'm Peter. Peter Parker.", Peter replied from where he was beginning to shift on his feet. 

Nodding his head, Strange looked back towards Tony and got right down to business. "Bruce has filled me in on what's been taking place between the two of you. It sounds as though the magic the aliens were wielding has mainly affected the neocortex. That's where--", he started.

"--Nope. It's definitely affected the amygdala as well.", Tony cut in, no longer feeling the need to be any kind of cordial. It wasn't like the wizard was using his best manners, why should he?

Strange rolled his eyes and waved a hand vaguely in the air. "I hardly think you have any room to be making such statements. What can you possibly know about the creation and storage of human memories?"

"A lot actually.", Tony announced with annoyance and when the other man raised his eyebrows ar him it was all he could do to not snap. "What are you looking at, Dynamo? You think I didn't do my homework? I spent hours last night going over--"

"--You can't possibly think that you've mastered the area of Nero-science in one night.", Strange scoffed.

"Oh, I definitely can.", Tony bit back as he stepped forward and crossed his arms indignantly over his chest. 

"That's not possible even for you. No one--", Strange drawled out, unwilling to meet Tony's heated tone. He spoke passive-aggressive as though it were a second language and didn't see the need to raise his voice. That and his lack of reaction seemed to get a rise out of the billionaire and that was more than enough to keep him going.

Getting more aggravated the longer the other man spoke, Tony huffed a humorless laugh and aggressively gestured towards himself. "--I'm a genius!--", he shouted with every intention of elaborating but he didn't get the chance. 

"That's enough, guys! Give it a rest!", Bruce shouted as he stepped between them. He could feel his blood boiling and he was well aware that there was a tinge of green creeping up his neck and that seemed to be enough to get the other two men in the room had snapped their mouths shut in favor of glowering at each other. With silence in the air, he tried to take a few deep breaths before nodding towards Peter. "How about we focus on the teenager that's still in the room waiting for us to help him."


	2. Why Throw It All Away

After Bruce's near-catastrophic outburst, Strange took a deep breath and stepped a bit closer to where Peter was half hiding behind Tony's back. "Let me take a look at you, Peter.", he said gently and drew the boy out with a friendly beckoning of his hand. "Just stand still, this won't hurt a bit.", he added before closing his eyes and producing a light orange glow around his hands before running them closely alongside Peter's body.

Having dealt with enough glowing lights to last him a lifetime the day before, Tony was quick to grab the kid by the bicep and pull him back way from Strange's hands. "What are you doing to him!", he snapped in concern.

"Scanning him for any traces of magic. That's why I'm here.", Strange blandly replied. "Since I can assume you didn't master any kind of mystic arts overnight as well. . _..did you?_ "

"Look, if your parlor tricks harm one hair on his--", Tony threatened as he let go of Peter's arm.

"--If you want my help then you need to _back off_.", Strange firmly asserted before getting back to his prior task. "I'm not going to injure your ward.", he mumbled under his breath causing Peter's head to shoot up in his direction.

"I'm not his ward. I'm his... _intern_ ", Peter replied. He was definitely not Tony's ward. He wasn't anyone's ward. He was just Tony's intern... who happened to have super-powers and Tony happened to like him enough to let him spend the night at his house on a weekly basis so that they could get work done. They were friendly and cared about either other but they weren't... _like that._

"Well, what's the verdict?", Tony questioned once Strange had gone back to placing his arms over his chest.

"That you were all very lucky.", Strange replied quietly as he looked down at Peter. "The alien race that attacked you is capable of much worse than giving the two of you a peek inside of each other's pasts.", he added while gently tapping the boy on the side of the head for emphasis.

"Dr. Strange, sir? Can you fix this? I mean, can you make it stop?", Peter asked with trepidation because it seemed like that would have been what the man started with. Or finished with... so far nothing had been said about whether or not anyone in the room was capable of undoing whatever had happened.

"No.", Strange replied with a sigh. "It'll have to run its course in time."

At this point, all eyes were on Peter as he swallowed hard and shifted on his feet. "How long do you think?", he asked with such sadness that even Strange had to look away for a moment.

"A few days at best and you've nearly completed the first one already.", Strange said with a dip of his head before straightening back up and clearing his throat. "...but I must warn you it's more than likely going to get worse before it gets better."

"Worse how?", Tony asked with a humorless laugh. "We went way past ' _a walk in someone else's shoes_ ' this morning when I had to keep the kid from losing his shit after being traumatized by _my_ past."

"I didn't lose my shit!", Peter defended without thinking. "I was just worried about you! Forgive me for giving a crap!"

Now all eyes were on Tony who had closed his mouth so quickly you could hear his teeth clank together. "Kid... that's not... I didn't mean it like that...", he said but Peter didn't look at him. Instead, he was approaching the other two men in the room.

"Thank you, Dr. Banner and Dr. Strange, sir but I think I'm going to go back upstairs now.", Peter said as he shook their hands and started towards the elevator.

"That went well.", Bruce sarcastically sighed out as Tony made a move to follow Peter towards the penthouse. Clearly they needed to talk but before he could get far, Strange was calling him back.

"Tony.", Strange said quietly. "He's young and this is a lot to process.. give him time."

"I'll give him all the time in the world.", Tony replied softly. It was going to be a very long couple of days.

When Tony arrived back upstairs he didn't see Peter anywhere in the living space and went ahead and assumed he'd gone into the room that had been unceremoniously designated as his. The door was closed but obviously not locked. "Kid...", he called through the door as he took hold of the handle. "I'm coming in, alright?", he announced but didn't make a move until he heard a low grumble in response.

He'd expected to see Peter laying on his bed but he'd not expected to see him wiping away tears. "I need you to talk to me, kiddo because we're in this together. It's just you and me.", Tony said before having his vision taken over by another of Peter's memories. This time, before he had time to figure out where the memory had taken him he was overcome with a chest crushing amount of grief. After that, his surroundings began to come into focus, he realized he, _no Pete_ r, was standing in the back of a church beside his aunt, as a casket, draped in the green and white stripes of the NYPD was being carried past them by several officers. Then he heard May's voice encouraging him to follow her. ' _I can't_.', he heard Peter's voice choke out with a sob but all he could see was the dull brown carpet and a pair of worn-out dress shoes. ' _Yes, you can, Peter, because we're in this together. It's just you and me_.', May said as she reached out and took his hand, _took Peter's hand_ and walked out of the dimly lit vestibule, through a set of large double doors and into the blinding sunlight.

As he blinked back to the present, Tony could feel a tear burning on his cheek and carefully reached up to wipe it away. Once he was sure he could speak without a hitch in his voice, he opened his mouth only to be cut off by Peter who standing before him and avoiding his eyes. "I already know what you saw and you don't have to say anything.", the boy said as he continued to stare at his toes that were digging into the plush carpet.

Still feeling a bit vulnerable from Peter's memory and his own empathetic reaction, Tony attempted to take a few steps closer to his mentee but the boy avoided him. "Pete... Your uncle... he was NYPD?", he asked stupidly and Peter nodded his head. He'd done a lot of research on the man, _well, the teenager as it were_ , behind the mask once he'd gotten a name. He'd learned that he kid was an orphan taken in by his aunt and uncle and that his uncle had recently passed away but he'd never investigated that particular detail. It wasn't relevant to his cause at the time and he'd long since forgotten that detail, really. "How do you know what I saw?"

Peter took a deep breath and finally looked up. "Because you're staring at me with that look on your face. The one that everyone gives me when they find out about my parents and my uncle. I'm fine, though, really.", he said with a half-hearted smile. "You don't have to feel sorry for me."

For another few seconds, Tony debated what to do with the information he'd been given. He wanted to hug the boy close and tell him that everything would be okay because he knew that kind of sadness. There was another part of him that wanted to respect Peter's wishes and pretend that he believed him when he'd said that he was fine. In the end, he decided to go somewhere in the middle. "You don't have to tell me that you're fine, kid. I know how it feels... losing someone like that but, uh... we don't have to talk about it if you don't want too. That's fine.", he finally replied before taking a seat on the edge of Peter's bed. "...but you know, while we're on the whole ' _feelings_ ' subject... I want you to know that before, downstairs... I wasn't trying to make you think that I don't care that you care or whatever. I was just, I don't know. Seeing you so upset about something that was so--"

"--I get it.", Peter interposed as he dropped back down onto the mattress. There seemed to be a lot of emotions being passed between them and he'd overreacted. He knew he had but he couldn't help it. "I'm sorry I jumped down your throat about it.", he added before grabbing his phone off of the table in order to flip through the multiple notifications. Unsurprisingly there were several missed texts from his aunt wondering where he was. After sending her a quick confirmation that he was alive and well, and still with Tony he turned towards his mentor. "Aunt May wants to know when I'm coming home.".

"Are you ready to go home?", Tony asked suspiciously. He didn't want the kid to think he was forcing him to stay there but he wasn't really sure how to explain this situation to the boy's aunt. "I'm just wondering if it might be better for you to stay here until we have this all sorted out."

While part of him did very much want to go home, the other part of him knew that Tony was right. He needed to stay there until the so-called magic had passed. As long as their memories were interconnected it was probably best to be near each other. If for no other reason than to be able to offer each other explanations... maybe reassurances but he told himself it was more about the former than the latter. "You're right. I should stay."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best. Why don't you tell her that I need you for some extra training after this last fiasco.", Tony suggested as an excuse. The kid had never stayed with him for more than a night or two and this time the stay could end up being much longer than that. He assumed she would want an explanation but Peter was already rapidly texting her.

"I can just tell her I want to spend some extra here. She doesn't care.", Peter replied before amending slightly. "I mean, _she cares_... she's just not going to be worried about it. She knows I'm fine here with you and like I said, she's working a lot anyway"

Tony nodded his head and hummed in acknowledgment. "Will you be okay if I go back down to the lab?", Tony asked. Peter nodded. "Will you come to find me again if you, you know, need anything?", he further inquired in an attempt to let the kid know he would be there for him, should he needed to seek out comfort from him again. It came out sounding clumsy but Peter seemed to know what he'd meant and that the offer was genuine because he smiled.

"I'll be okay, Mr. Stark but yeah, if I need anything, I know where you are.", Peter said with a slight smile but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. It seemed that things were already getting awkward and according to the only available expert, this was only the beginning. He really hoped that whatever invasive memory assaulted his consciousness next wouldn't be quite so aggressive. He was already on edge.

Seeing as the shower hadn't exactly worked out as a good way to relax, Peter opted to fluff up his pillows and place his earbuds in his ears with the intention of listening to some music and doing some reading on his phone. Knowing he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the words he was reading if there were words pouring into his ears via his music, he carefully chose an instrumental music station. He was half-way into an article on 'The Ethical Use of AIs in Modern Society' when his eyes closed and his phone fell from his hand onto the bed.

He stayed asleep for a good two hours and woke naturally to the sound of soft piano music still playing through his earbuds. He was just about to turn it off in favor of going into the kitchen to find food when one song began to fade into the next. The new melody was hazily familiar and made him pause. He closed his eyes and tried to place the melody but before he could, a strong feeling a nostalgia washed over him and suddenly he was Tony, laying on a couch beside his mother, who was playing the piano. He could hear her softly singing the lyrics in time to the music that was still playing in his ears. It was soothing and comfortable and just as he was sure that sleep could easily take him, the singing stopped and the woman was speaking to him, _to Tony_ , instead. ' _Wake up dear and say good-bye to your father_.', her voice said before Howard Stark, sauntered into the room. There was a brief exchange regarding women before things turned mildly confrontational. He could hear Tony's voice become more mocking as the conversation continued, even as he brought his attention back to his mother. ' _You're going to love the holiday menu at the commissary_ ', he heard Tony's voice say towards his mother's ear before he turned his back to both of them with a roll of his eyes. Then as he was staring blankly towards the next room he heard Howards voice cut right through him. ' _You know they say sarcasm is a metric for potential, if that's true then you'll be a great man someday_ ', he heard the man say but it didn't feel like a compliment. It felt painfully bitter. Then before any other words could be exchanged, the song that had been diligently playing the background the entire time ended along with the memory and Peter was back in his bedroom at the compound.

~o~o~o~o~o~

The remainder of the day was passed without incident but Peter and Tony were both so wound up tight with anticipation that neither of them said much over dinner. Tony didn't even try this time. Instead, he sat on the couch unspeaking as he stabbed at his fried rice with the provided wooden chopsticks rather than eat it. Eventually, he gave in and set the box back down on the coffee table with the intention of excusing himself back to the lab but before he could, Peter was quietly calling his name.

"Hey, Mr. Stark? I um, I saw your parents today.", the boy said casually as if he weren't speaking about ghosts.

"Yeah?", Tony replied after a beat of silence. He didn't really know what else to say. The kid didn't look terribly upset so he didn't think it was anything bad but he did look confused and he couldn't decide if that was more or less concerning.

Peter, who was steadily looking down at his own carton of food, sighed. "I was listening to music and a song came on. It was just the piano, no lyrics and I thought it sounded familiar so I closed my eyes and then, then I heard your mom singing the words and ... is that why you named your grant program the September Foundation?"

The imprecise explanation paired with the dramatic change in subject had Tony's head spinning. Not that any of that was terribly unusual. It was like the boy's head would go faster than his mouth and huge chunks of information would end up being left unsaid. Usually, he could keep up and fill in the cryptic blanks but this time he was at a complete loss. "Come again?", he asked for clarification's sake.

Taking a deep breath to try and slow himself down, Peter closed his eyes and started over. This time taking care to add in a few more relevant details. "After you came to my apartment and talked to my aunt about the September foundation, I looked it up and found the speech you gave at MIT on YouTube. You know, The Binary Augmented Retro-Framing thing... that was the memory I saw. The song... the one that she was singing, it was about September and how it was good. Is that why you named it that?"

"Wait... what did you see? The presentation or...", Tony asked ambiguously.

"Today? Not the MIT thing, no. I think this was the real--", he began but it appeared that the clarification of which version of the events he'd witnessed was all he was interested in hearing as he rapidly answered the previous question.

"--Yes. That's why I named it that.", Tony spat out a little louder than necessary before the kid could elaborate. He didn't know why. It wasn't like any of that was a secret, It was on YouTube for Christ's sake. Maybe he'd just had his fill of trudged up memories for the day. After running his hands over his forehead he picked his food back up and used his chopsticks to point at the half-eaten container that was still in Peter's hands. "Now, no more questions. Eat your chicken."

Smiling to himself, Peter nodded his head and did just that.

After the food had been slowly taken in, both Peter and Tony headed towards the lab where they worked on their own separate projects for entirely too long. There was still silence between them and that was unusual but under the circumstances neither of them questioned it. It wasn't uncomfortable. Which was probably why Peter startled when Tony placed a gentle hand on his back at nearly two in the morning and suggested that they try to sleep.

Peter dejectedly followed his mentor back up to the penthouse, bid him good-night and got ready for bed. Sleep was easier to find than he'd expected and the moment his head hit the pillow he was out like a light. He didn't, however, stay that way. Several hours later he found himself right in the middle of an unexpected nightmare. At first, it was just flashing images. He was in the Iron Man suit looking at a large swirling hole in the sky, a nuclear bombshell in his hands and an urgent warning flashing across the helmet's HUD. Then he was suddenly surrounded by large space crafts, deep in the dark expanses of space. There was an explosion followed by the armor flickering out of commission before he began to fall. His body went limp with the force of the downward pull and he could see the ground getting closer. His only saving grace was that there was no impact. He woke up suddenly, covered in sweat and choking on his own breath.

It wasn't until after he'd bolted upright in bed and taken several measured breaths that he realized the nightmare he'd just endured was more than likely Tony's nightmare. Seeing as the sun had yet to rise, he could only assume that his mentor was still asleep. With that in mind, he got out of bed and made his way into the living room, taking care to make as little noise as possible. Though once he'd filled a glass with water and sat down at the breakfast bar, it didn't seem to matter. He could hear Tony's door opening followed by several shuffled footfalls as the man approached the living area, looking fairly disheveled himself.

"What are you doing up?", Tony asked in surprise as he rounded the corner to find his mentee wasn't in his bed as he'd assumed.

Peter held up his cup and sighed. "Just needed some water.", he tiredly uttered. He wasn't sure he had the mental capacity at the moment to answer the question any more truthfully. He didn't like talking about his own nightmares. Let alone someone else's and if the sheen of sweat shining across the man's bare shoulder's was any indication, then he could surmise that they were both awake due to the same less than ideal circumstances anyway.

Tony nodded his head and went to fill his own glass before taking a seat beside Peter. He could tell by the way the teenager's hands were still shaking that he was lying. He was almost certain they were up for the same reason. "You know you don't have to lie to me, right? That you can tell me anything?", he asked with concern. He couldn't get the images from what he assumed was the kid's nightmare out of his head. Dust, rubble, bent steel and the piercingly green glowing eyes of the vulture.

"I'm fine Mr. Stark.", Peter adamantly declared before hesitating slightly. "I just, well, I didn't know you had nightmares."

"I could say the same about you.", Tony replied with a nod of his head. He wasn't sure how the subject had never come up before but now that it was out in the open, it felt like something that should be discussed. He was supposed to be mentoring the kid, not just in tech but as a superhero as well and nightmares just came with the job. "Maybe we should talk about it.", he suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I don't want to talk about it", Peter grumbled under his breath causing Tony to sigh.

"Kid... Pete, you know nightmares aren't a bad thing, right? It's just our subconscious' way of trying to process things.", Tony said before taking a deep breath. "Especially... scary things. It helps to talk about it. It really does", he added quietly. There was a time when he'd not wanted to talk about his nightmares either. It took him a while to realize that verbalizing his fears was exactly what he needed to do in order to help control them. He had Pepper to thank for that.

Instead of answering right away, Peter got up and crossed the room towards the large couch. Once he was comfortably seated he turned towards his mentor with traitorous tears building in his eyes. "There isn't really much to talk about now is there? What do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you about your own nightmare? Or tell you about the one you already saw for yourself?", he argued before taking a shaky breath.

Unable to argue with that, Tony crossed the distance between them and took a seat on the couch beside Peter. "I guess you're right.", he admitted quietly. He'd not really thought of it that way. He just wanted to help. Knowing that the boy was already subject to night terrors shouldn't have been making him feel as guilty as it was. It wasn't like he could stop him from doing the whole spider-gig. He'd tried... it had ended poorly... resulting in nightmares, apparently and maybe that was what he was really feeling guilty about. When Dr. Stange had said that things would get worse before they got better, neither of them had been sure of what that meant and maybe they still weren't but at the moment, sharing nightmares seemed like it had to be the apogee of it all. "I'm sorry, Buddy. I really am." 

Nodding his head and feeling more vulnerable than ever, Peter wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt and leaned back on the couch. As he did so, Tony reached over and put an arm around his shoulders. He couldn't deny the amount of comfort he gained from the action and before he could stop himself, he was allowing his body to fall naturally into the man's side. "Can we maybe watch a movie?", he asked on a whim. The sun was already starting to rise and he knew he wasn't going to try to go back to bed. He was sort of assuming that Tony wasn't either. "Maybe something _very PG_... and funny.", he added with a small smile. He was definitely not in the mood for any sort of drama or action.

"Sure, kid. You pick.", Tony replied as he pulled Peter in a little more closely. They both ended up falling back asleep before the first movie ended.

Later that morning, Tony woke up to the smell of something Peter had burnt on the stove. As he sat up he was overtaken by one of Peter's memories. One that consisted of burnt biscuits that had flooded the apartment with smoke. Ben waving a newspaper towards an open window and May profusely apologizing. The laughter shared between everyone after made him smile. He knew Peter could tell he'd seen something but the boy didn't ask and he didn't offer. It seemed that they had both had their fill of relaying what they witnessed back and forth.

They kept that approach up for the remainder of the morning. Each of them had several instances where foreign memories had stolen their attention from their respective tasks but nothing was ever said. Even as the memories became more frequent they stayed quiet. Looks were exchanged but that was the extent of it. Quizzical eyes, soft smiles, and reassuring looks prevailed as they researched and tinkered well into the early evening hours. That worked all the way up until Peter was given a look into the man's past that he'd never considered before. Something he couldn't keep quiet about.

Peter had just handed his plans over to Tony when the man mentioned Integrated Circuitry. Suddenly Peter wasn't in the lab anymore at all, instead, he found himself in a dimly lit room that was so loud he could hardly hear himself think. He, _as Tony_ , was being led through a door by some man with a headset on, who was talking to him about something that he couldn't really make out. There was an empty glass in his hand, his head was swimming and something about the entire situation was just... _funny_. The other man eventually left, saying that there would be fifteen minutes until he was to take the stage. ' _Fifteen minutes ought to do it_.', Tony's voice mumbled before glancing around the room to confirm that he was alone. Once he had, he pulled an Altoids tin out of his pocket and dumped the contents onto the table. A bag of white powder, a tightly rolled up one hundred dollar bill, and a razor. Some quick prep and one last side glance towards the door later, he was leaning over the table and inhaling a straight line of the powder through the large bill. ...then, the next thing he knew he was on the stage feeling so focused that it was dizzying as Tony's voice spouted out something about Integrated Circuits being the keystone of modern electronics, though the voice sounded so distant that he couldn't quite make out the words...

When Peter's thoughts made their way back to the present all he could do was stare at Tony. He'd known that the man had been an alcoholic in the past. He also knew that for years he'd been known as a playboy who's life was one big bachelor party. Though it had never occurred to him that the man had ever _done drugs_ and while he could easily look past some experimental marijuana in college... this was _very_ different and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

"What?", Tony finally asked when the boy had been looking at him with his brows knit together for entirely too long.

With disappointment and nerves still twisting uncomfortably in his stomach, Peter tried to shake the remnants of the images from his head. "Wh-why would you do that?", he asked incredulously. He just couldn't fathom why the man would have done such a thing. He'd always associated drugs with... _bad guys_. It felt almost like a betrayal to see his literal hero, inhaling drugs.

Tony's own brow wrinkled with thought as he looked at Peter for several seconds and tried to figure out what the boy was referring too. All he knew was that whatever it was must have been bad. The kid was looking at him like he'd committed some sort of a crime...not that, that particular option was off the table... "You're going to have to be a little bit more specific than that, kiddo. I've done a lot of things."

"You... you took drugs?", Peter asked without missing a beat and even Tony's face flushing with regret wasn't enough for him to drop the subject. He had entirely too many questions.

"Once upon a time...", Tony replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders but when the look of disapproval didn't fade from Peter's face he blew a deep breath out of his mouth and closed his eyes. "Whatever you saw had to have been a long time ago, Buddy."

"...but why? You, you had everything, why would you do that?", he strained. He couldn't imagine having buckets full of money and then turning around and doing something so irresponsible with it. It was wrong.

Sighing in defeat, Tony wiped his hands down his face. If he'd thought the conversation about Afganistan had been bad, then this one was going to be horrendous. "I'm not sure we should be having this--", he started with every intention of trying to deflect the conversation but it seemed that Peter wasn't to be detoured.

"--Was it all the time?", Peter asked before going wide eye. "Wait. Do you, do you still...?"

The more Peter probed the more disheartened Tony became. After all the time they had spent together did the kid really think that he was still hooked on cocaine? "Kid... I was..." He wanted to say 'young' but really he couldn't even claim that. Sure, he'd bought a convincing fake ID so that he could buy alcohol well before he'd come of age but he'd been over twenty the first time he'd made an illegal purchase of that caliber. "I made some stupid choices and not that it makes it sound any better but it was, well, still is, a pretty common occurrence in the... _upper_ , upper class.", he said with a wave of his hand and a hint of remorse.

He'd picked up the habit, surprisingly _after_ college. He probably had Rhodey to thank for that. His parents had just died and he was trying to run a company that he had no interest in running with very little actual support. It probably hadn't been the best way to handle the pressure but it was readily available and did the trick. When alcohol wasn't enough or he needed to get his brain to shut up for a while so that he could think about something else... he called in the reinforcements. Then what started as a 'want' quickly became a 'need' and he ended spending more time drunk, high or both than anything else.

"...but do you?", Peter pressed, never taking his eyes off of his mentor's.

"No.", Tony replied with confidence. He'd inhaled his last line an hour prior to being kidnapped and nothing screams detox like spending three months in a cave. He'd gone right back to the alcohol upon his return but by some miracle, he'd managed to lay off of all illegal substances from that point forward. He wasn't sure it had to do with his newfound mission in life, the fact that he spent more time creating and improving his Iron Man suit than anything else or... Pepper. ...but even during his deepest bouts of recurring depression, he'd stayed clean, later dropping the majority of his alcohol use as well. "I've not done anything like that in... well, almost ten years.", he admitted as he watched the wheels in Peter's head turning.

For a few minutes, Peter chewed on his bottom lip and tried to think. Tony had said he wasn't doing those kinds of things anymore and honestly, he believed him. He couldn't quite explain the lingering feelings of hurt but he tried to swallow it down and focus on the relief that had come from the answers he'd received. "I guess that has been a pretty long time.", he admitted with a half-smile.

"Look, I'm gonna go ahead and be straight with you. You are bound to see a lot more things make you uncomfortable or that you just don't like and if I'm being honest I'm glad you don't like those kinds of thing but you need to remember that I was brought up in a very different environment than you.", Tony replied seriously. Like, many of the others he'd grown up with, he'd been given unlimited funds and parents who spent more time trying to impress each other than actually parenting. That kind of upbringing didn't exactly foster the growth of wholesome personal ethics. "I wasn't raised to have the same moral compass that you have.", he added with a small smile. "Drugs and alcohol... _among other things_... are just how a lot of people with more money than sense deal with their day to day problems. I suppose that doesn't make it right but it's how it is and I need you to try to understand that."

"Yeah, I understand.", Peter returned even though he didn't really. He understood what Tony was saying, of course, he just couldn't wrap his brain around that kind of lifestyle. However, he supposed he was starting to get a small taste of what it looked like thanks to alien brain-scrambling magic. "So... I'm pretty sure this counts as my first drug experience.", he added with a tilt of his head and a smile.

"Uh-huh, and it better be your last. You're supposed to be better than me.", Tony clipped from across the room as he tried to assess how serious the teenager was being.

Feeling the need to cut some of the tension that had built in the room, Peter attempted to tease. "I don't know... It seemed to work for you. Maybe if I gave it a try I could give a speech in front of a bunch of people without stuttering. I might be worth it.", he said with a flippant wave of his hand and a cheeky smile that made Tont glare at him.

"I swear to god, Parker, that's not even remotely funny and you had better tell me right this minute that you're messing with me or I'm going to lose my shit.", Tony demanded as he pointed an authority finger in Peter's direction.

"Okay, okay!", Peter placated as he laughed at his mentor's rigid response. "I totally messing with you. Calm down. Hugs, not drugs. I get it."

"Really, kid?", Tony replied with a quirk of his eyebrow before blandly repeating, "Hugs, not drugs. Where do you come up with this stuff?"

Still laughing, Peter looked at Tony with mild surprise. "They didn't do the whole 'Stay Drug-Free' Red Ribbon Week thing when you were in school?", he asked. He'd been pretty sure that had been around forever.

Tony huffed a laugh at the question. "I'm nearly positive that wasn't a thing and even if it was, clearly I wasn't paying it any attention."

Taking this as the perfect opportunity to go off on a tangent, Peter smiled widely. "Oh Man! You missed out then because there are so many more ridiculous slogans! Like, 'Don't huff, don't puff, stay away from that stuff' and 'I'm not a loser because I'm not a user' and then there's the whole Captain America 'Don't Do Drugs', PSA video which is pretty funny since you know, the only reason he's Captain America at all is because he basically allowed himself to be injected with drugs.--", Peter happily rambled before Tony cut him off with an amused laugh.

"--Okay. We're definitely going to talk about this whole 'Captain America PSA' thing later but for now, how about we take a look at that project of yours.", Tony laughed because it was nice to hear the kid sound so happy and unafflicted. It felt like ages since he'd seen him crack even the smallest of genuine smiles. Listening to him babble was almost a relief.

A few more pleasant exchanges and some technical advice later Peter was back on his side of the lab while Tony worked on his. As the hours passed the more frequent flashback-style memories came more and more often until neither of them could focus on anything other than what was being projected into their thoughts. While Tony's vision was swimming with secret handshakes, childhood embarrassments, and the occasional botched Spider-man patrol, Peter was being overwhelmed with college exploits, elegant parties, and a hostile encounter with Steve Rogers and the man with the metal arm. It soon became obvious that the memories didn't even require a trigger anymore and the invasions felt nearly constant. It was all beginning to become overwhelming, especially for Peter.


	3. Maybe It's Meant to Be

The steady stream of invasive thoughts continued to increase as the night went on, eventually becoming so overpowering that Peter ended up dropping his head down onto his desk with tears of frustration in his eyes. "I can't take it anymore, Mr. Stark!", he nearly shouted. "Ugh. I am going to go down to the gym for half an hour."

"You sure, kid?" Tony questioned. He felt like he should offer to tag along but that sounded like it required a shit ton of energy and he really just physically couldn’t make himself move.   
  


"Yeah. I need to move and then maybe I'll be able to actually sleep.", Peter explained. He was actually feeling really good about it. He loved moving around when he was getting anxious and jittery and going a few floors down to the gym meant that Tony would still be close. It was perfect. 

When he made it to the gym, though, he hadn’t expected to be hit with a memory the second he stepped in the door and he was pretty sure it was the smell that triggered it because he found himself on some kind of mat seconds later.   
  


The worst part about experiencing someone else's memory was that you couldn’t close your eyes to it, even if you wanted to. Really wanted to. Like, really, really wanted to. You couldn’t even decide where to look, so when the next thing Peter saw was boobs. His own self would have jumped back at least ten feet while Tony's self just kind of... dove in?   
  


It was the weirdest thing Peter had ever seen or experienced. Everything about the three (three!!!! How was that even possible?) women around him were breathtaking, but he couldn’t really tell if it was just Tony who thought so, or if it was himself, too? It seemed like they were everywhere. On top of him, under him, next to him, their hair in Tony’s face and their breath in his ear. They were covered in sweat, but they still smelled like flowers and everything kind of tingled and tickled in the best kind of way.   
  


It was over before it even started, the memory didn’t last long, maybe a minute or two, but it left Peter kind of breathless. Even in his confused mind, he was incredibly grateful that Tony only had eyes for the blondes and never once looked down at _himself_ because Peter was pretty he would never be able to look his mentor in the eyes again if he’d seen his hard-on. Gross. Traumatizing, actually. He promised himself then and there that he would never tell Tony about it. _Ever._

"Mr. Stark, what are you working on?" Peter babbled when he made it back into the lab. Anything to not think about what he'd seen. "I am so over this, I am tiiired." He added in a whine because now that he was back and had dropped down onto the couch in the corner of the room, he realized how much he really was over it. This was exhausting. "I'm really, really tired but I don't think I can sleep and the gym didn't work and now I don't know what to do."

Having been wrapped up in his own distracting visions, Tony had to take several seconds to comprehend what Peter had said. "It'll be over soon.", he replied almost breathlessly as he tried to recover from Peter's memory of his transformation after the spider bite. God, that had been intense. The pain. The confusion. It was a wonder the kid hadn't gone crazy during those, what he gathered to be, several days.

"Dr. Strange said it would last a few days. It's only been two... I think. It's all running together right now.", Peter remarked as he clutched his head between his hands as if that would be enough to shield him from the next episode.

Tony sagged in his seat, feeling just as defeated as Peter at the moment. He too was so tired his body ached but worse than that was the mental exhaustion. The combination had him staring blankly at his lap as he tried to cling to the one tiny speck of hope he could find at the moment. "Yeah but he also said it would get worse before it got better. It can only get better from here.", he sighed out, only glancing up when he received no answer. "Pete?", he asked when he couldn't decide if the teenager was blank-faced due to another memory or if he was on the verge of falling asleep. The answer came seconds later when Peter jolted back to life with a jerk of his shoulders.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry.", he rapidly spat, seeing as his mentor was looking at him with concern from across the way. "I didn't see anything bad, I promise, Mr. Stark. I'm just really tired."

After running his hands through his hair, Tony looked around the room and then stood up before either of them could become incapacitated again. "Clearly being down here isn't helping anymore. Let's go upstairs.", he stated as he walked out the door, not even bothering to close anything up. Peter followed behind at a slower pace but soon they were together in the living room. The first thing Tony did was to suggest trying to sleep because he was so tired that his body ached from his bones to his hair. He'd not really expected that proposal to be met with such vigor but the kid looked on the verge of pulling his hair out at the mere idea.

"No sleeping. Sleeping will be worse.", Peter hissed through his teeth as he tugged at his hair. He was worried that sleep would lead to more nightmares and at the moment, the memories felt like the lesser of the two evils. Even the bad ones.

"Okay, no sleeping.", Tony placated. He could absolutely see where Peter was coming from but he wasn't sure that fighting to stay up was necessarily the answer. Peter looked a wreck and he was sure he didn't look much better. They needed some kind of rest even if it wouldn't lead to a reprieve, which led him to his next idea. "Look, my bed is huge, why don't we go lay there for a while. You don't have to sleep but let's lay down."

When Peter's only protest was a dubious look he took him by the elbow and started to tug him down the hall, pausing in front of the kid's door, where he sent him to change into more comfortable clothes and asked him to meet back up with him in the master bedroom. Once he was sure that the kid was going to acquiesce, he retreated into his own room so that he could get ready to settle in for the night. The entire process took longer than it should have due to the constant flow of images through his vision but the moment he was done he flopped down onto his bed and squeezed his eyes shut.

After several minutes had passed and Peter never appeared, Tony lay there and debated whether he should have FRIDAY call him or if he should go look for him, himself. In the end the nagging bit of anxiety in the back of his head had him hoisting himself back up and shuffling across the hall. "Kid?", he called into the open door. "You coming?"

"Are you really okay with that, Mr. Stark?", Peter asked miserably from where he was perched on the end of his bed looking seconds from death.

"Yes, I'm really okay with that. I don't offer things I'm not okay with, kiddo.", Tony replied softly but when Peter didn't budge, he sighed. He wasn't trying to push anything. He'd just sort of assumed that the boy wouldn't want to be alone and he'd like to have thought that he knew the kid well enough to be able to predict those kinds of things but then again, maybe he was wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. "Unless, of course, you'd rather say here.", he offered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"No. I want to be with you, Mr. Stark.", Peter rapidly returned but when he only made a marginal effort to get up from where he sat, Tony chuckled lightly.

"Well, come on then. Chop, chop. Turn down service was ten minutes ago. You're late.", Tony barked out with a weary smile.

Peter smiled back and started to cross the room towards where Tony had his arm out waiting for him to duck under it. "Is there a mint on my pillow?", he tiredly asked as he soaked up the affection that came from having the man's arm heavily draped over his shoulders.

"No. You don't even like mints.", Tony replied with a playful roll of his eyes.

"Well, I guess that means no tip for you, then.", Peter tiredly teased with a slight nod of his head as they walked into the master bedroom where the man paused to cross his arms over his chest.

"I don't get a tip for knowing you don't like mints and therefore not subjecting you to them?", Tony scoffed as if there had been any chance of his actually leaving any sort of anything on the pillow. "I feel like I should get a tip for that alone."

At this point, Peter's tired brain was having trouble coming up with a good come-back so after a short pause, he just sighed. "Do you really _want_ a tip?", he asked as he eyed the gigantic bed that was only a few strides away and seemingly calling his name.

With a small laugh, Tony laid down and gestured for the kid to do that same. "No. What I want is for you to get in this bed and lay down."

Peter did as he was asked but groaned in the process. "How many parties did you and Mr. Rhodes go to?", he whined as he was once again subjected to Tony's energetic voice and Rhodey's constant nagging.

"Too many, kiddo.", Tony grumbled and he rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes and then rolled over to face his protege. "I'm really sorry you're having to...", he started with the intention of apologizing for subjecting the kid to his less than healthy past but instead he lay there feeling oddly nauseous as his vision flipped and swayed side to side while Peter's voice whooped with excitement. He could fly in his own suit all day long but something about literally twisting and spinning mid-air as Spider-man made his insides churn with motion sickness.

Peter was going to ask him what he was going to say but then he too was taken from the room. The pace of the memories occurrences managed to double over the next couple of hours and neither of them was present in the room for longer than five minutes at a time. Tony was taking it in weary stride while Peter cried. He didn't want to cry... it just happened. The other thing that just happened was ending up in Tony's arms. Any other time he was sure he would have been embarrassed to be laying in bed with his mentor while being held like a helpless toddler but at the moment he couldn't possibly care any less. The firm grasp was reassuring and the murmured words of comfort that he would occasionally comprehend were soothing. He tried to return the favor when Tony's face scrunched up in discomfort but he was sure he wasn't hitting the mark.

At some unknown point in the night, both of them eased into a restless sleep. The nightmares weren't the same as they had been before. Instead, it was like a constantly running series of home videos. Choppy and disconnected events that had been haphazardly recorded and strung together on one reel.

Tony woke up first. The sun was glaring into the room and the untamed curls on the top of Peter's head were trickling his nose where the teenager was still clinging to his shirt. He considered waking him but feeling the calm puffs of breath being blown into his chest made him change his mind. The boy was painfully exhausted or frustrated to tears for the past several days. He finally seemed to be at peace and Tony was content to let him stay that way for a little bit longer.

As he lay on his side, holding Peter close he waited with joyless anticipation for the next memory to take over his head but none came. Not after five minutes, not after fifteen, not even after forty-five when the boy finally started to stir awake. "Hey, Buddy.", Tony whispered as Peter started to slowly pull his way out of his arms.

"I'm sorry.", Peter gasped when he realized he'd inadvertently fallen asleep still in his mentor's hold.

"For what?", Tony asked with humor as the kid made a sluggish attempt to put a few more inches of space between them.

"For... this?", Peter asked more so that explained but Tony understood. As many times as they'd sat closely together on the couch and Peter had dozed off on his shoulder, this was different. It felt far less friendly and much more parental, Oddly enough, Tony didn't mind that feeling nearly as much as he felt like he should have.

"No need to be sorry. You're fine. Or, I think you're fine. Are you fine?", the man asked and that seemed to be enough to get Peter to stop trying to move away and to settle back down where he was, still well within Tony's close proximity.

"I think so.", Peter replied with a quiet yawn. It only took a few more moments to realize that he's been awake for several minutes and hadn't had any kind of memory or flashback. That alone left him feeling so relieved that he could cry. Then, with the alleviation of one discomfort, another came another and he shifted slightly under the covers before once again, trying to get up. "Actually, I need to use the bathroom."

Tony nodded his head and pointing towards a closed door. "You can use mine. It's just over there.", he said as he rolled onto his back and allowed his mind to drift back towards the realization that Peter wasn't just 'the kid' anymore... he'd sort of become 'his kid' and when he thought about it, he supposed that maybe that wasn't much of a stretch. He'd always felt somewhat protective of the boy. At first, he'd thought it was out of duty. It wasn't until later when they'd started spending a lot of time together that he'd realized that he actually had an extremely soft spot for the teenager. It was also worth considering that, at this point knew everything there was to know about the kid's family, friends, personal accomplishments, and insecurities too. ...though even more interestingly, Peter now knew all of those things about him as well. Before he had time to delve any deeper into _that_ realization, in particular, Peter returned to the bed he decided that he may as well take a few minutes to use the restroom as well. If for no other reason but to delay what was more than likely going to be an inevitable conversation about feelings.

When Tony returned to the bedroom he found Peter was still comfortably lying smack dab in the middle of his bed. After inwardly rolling his eyes, he cracked a smile and lay back down, thus returning them to their previous positions. "So... all of that happened...", he said in a lame attempt at opening up a dialog between himself and the kid beside him.

"Yeah, I guess it did.", Peter chuckled. "...and I hope it never happens again. Like, ever in the history of ever."

"I'll second that.", Tony added with a brief smile. "I suppose we need to talk about though, huh, kid?"

"We don't have to.--", Peter rapidly began. He knew they were going to have to talk about it at some point but he wasn't ready for that to happen yet. He was sure that once they talked about it things would get messy and confusing and he was somewhat afraid that the man would go back to keeping his distance.

"--but we should", Tony interjected even though he didn't want to talk about it either but this was more about damage control than anything else. He was trying to be responsible and maybe prevent things from falling apart later. He'd grown entirely too attached to the teenager and couldn't imagine him simply fading out of his existence because they allowed things to become uncomfortable with lack of acknowledgment and unanswered questions. "That was... a lot to take in all at once. It was intense but also sort of enlightening, I suppose."

"Enlightening? Enlightening how?", Peter mumbled under his breath. He knew he'd learned more than he ever thought possible about his mentor but he'd never considered how much the man had learned about him and not that he was thinking about it, he was on edge. Tony must have noticed because rather than jumping right into anything serious he smirked.

"Well, for instance, I had no idea that you had a crush on Captain America when you were little.", he chuckled as he thought about little Peter sitting at a little desk writing a letter in red and blue crayons. It had been one of the more lighthearted revelations he'd come across and felt like a good place to start. Giving the kid a hard time about something so innocent would no doubt help to ease the discomfort they were both, no doubt feeling at the moment. He smiled when it worked and the boy gave a disgruntled groan.

"Oh my God, Mr. Stark, it wasn't a crush. I was five and I thought he was cool.", Peter explained with a mild glare even though he was somewhat thankful that of all of the embarrassing things the man had probably seen that was the one he decided to bring up. In the grand scheme of things, that was fairly tame.

Tony nodded his head, smiled at the boy's reddening cheeks and decided to take it just one little step further. "Hmm. It sure sounded like a crush. You wanted to invite him to your birthday party."

Rolling onto his back and covering his face with one of his arms, Peter tried not to smile. "Shut up.", he strained but the seriousness of the comment was lost in the small laugh that was underlying the demand.

"Fine, moving along...", Tony replied with a wave of his hand before tugging the boy's arm so that it was no longer covering his eyes. He was ready to move on to something more serious and he really wanted to say it to his face. "I didn't know you thought so highly of me either.", he added softly, once he had the boy's attention.

"Of course I do. You're Tony Stark. You're single-handedly the coolest person I know.", Peter replied with admiration. Iron Man was cool too but Tony was the man inside the suit and he respected that.

"I won't tell Ned you said that.", Tony teased before wavering slightly at his next question. "You still think I'm cool? Even after all the drugs, alcohol and... oh my God, I didn't traumatize you with any kind of...", he floundered as he half sat up and gestured wildly towards absolutely nothing. "... you know... _mature content_... Did I?"

It took Peter all of about half a second to figure out what on Earth the man was talking about but when it clicked he blushed so hard that he was sure his entire body had turned red. "No! Nothing like that.", he lied. He had definitely witnessed some ' _mature content'_ , as Tony had put it, but he was not going to be having that discussion. There was no way in hell and when Tony immediately relaxed he knew he'd made the right choice.

"Thank God.", Tony replied with a relieved sigh as he flopped back down into his pillow. He was not prepared to have any sort of conversation about that. All parental notions aide, he was not ready to sit down and talk about his precarious sex life with a sixteen-year-old.

After that, things were quiet for a while, neither of them quite knowing what else to say but when the silence was broken it was by Peter. "Are things going to be weird now, Mr. Stark.", he asked with trepidatious curiosity as he stared blankly at the ceiling. "I mean, I don't think they are right now but what about after leave? When I come back will things go back to normal?"

Tony sighed and tried to think about the best way to answer such a complicated and seemingly loaded question but he couldn't quite figure out what answer the kid was looking for. That was making it even more complicated. "No. Things won't ever be normal again. They can't possibly be.", he finally reasoned but Peter seemed to take it the wrong way.

"We could just pretend like none of this ever happened and--", Peter replied sounding both disappointed and unsurprised as he threw back the covers in order to scramble out of the bed. However, before he could get far, Tony was grabbing him by the forearm.

"--Kid... no, that's not what I meant. Come back here.", Tony said while urging Peter to lay back down beside him. "What I meant to say is... that this...", he started while waving a hand between them, "... if you want it to be, could be our new normal. We don't have to pretend that none of this ever happened. It doesn't have to be weird.", he added but he could tell that the boy was still tense but he didn't really know what to say to fix that. He had no idea what going through the kid's head.

Peter took in those words and took a shuddering breath. "I just really, really want to be able to come and hang out with you still. I like it when you teach me things, Mr. Stark and when, when you invite me to stay over it makes me feel really good about myself because, well, it just does and I don't want that to stop.", he confided, leaving out the part that after everything the had taken place between them, it was hard to not interpret the man's actions as parental and he wanted to hold onto that.

"That won't stop.", Tony rapidly reassured. "If anything, I'm probably going to want you to stay here more often. You're going to get sick of me, kid.", he teased but there was so much truth in those words that he hoped the kid would hear them for what they were. An admission that he was more than willing to accommodate the newest development in their relationship and if the way Peter was smiling was any indication, that message had come across loud and clear.

"I could never get tired of you...", Peter said with a wide grin. It was nice to know that they both wanted the same thing. It would have been heartbreaking for things to have gone any other way.

"We'll see about that.", Tony returned with a smile of his own before deciding that he'd had his fill of sentimental discussions for the morning and changed the subject with a clap of his hands. "Now. Do you want some breakfast or... lunch? I guess it's lunchtime now. I could make us some turkey, avocado wraps. Unless, of course, you want breakfast. In which case I can make us some eggs or biscuits or whatever.", he asked, already sitting up at the edge of the bed.

"You know how to make biscuits?", Peter asked dubiously. Nine times out of ten, they just ate cereal for breakfast and he'd never seem Tony cook anything beyond a frozen pizza.

"They're not exactly hard, Pete. You just add milk to the mix, get them on a pan and toss them in a hot oven. Then, voila, you have biscuits.", Tony replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Peter nodded his head and smiled. "May burns them.", he replied and wasn't at all surprised when the man huffed a laugh.

"I know.", Tony returned, smiling at the memory of the memory and that was decidedly a weird thought.

Tony ended up making perfectly baked biscuits just to prove that he could and Peter ate them with no complaint. Not long after that, he went home and after a short patrol, he managed to get there just in time to eat some dinner with his aunt before she took off towards her next shift. They spoke briefly about the alien fight and about his time spent with Tony, including the mix-matched memories and promises of more time together in the future. May didn't seem at all surprised by the development in their relationship, even if she was very surprised about the way it had come about and Peter was glad that she didn't press for him a bunch of specifics. Typically he told her everything but there were some things that she simply didn't need to know so, he kept the more intimate details to himself. 

After a few seconds of silence, May looked at her nephew and smiled fondly. "Well, it sounds like you two got a crash course in getting to know each other."

"Yeah, something like that.", Peter agreed with a slightly embarrassed nod of his head. 'Crash course' was probably putting it lightly. At this point, he and Tony knew more about each other's lives than they were ever meant to know over any amount of time. He didn't say that though. Rather he quietly asked the question that was still burning at the back of his head. "Do you think Mr. Stark meant what he said, though? About wanting me around more often?"

May chuckled and reached out across the table to grab Peter's hand. "He doesn't strike me as the kind of person who goes around saying things he doesn't mean.", she said with a wink and a twinkle in her eye. If Tony Stark was anything, it was honest, almost brutally so at times.

"Yeah, yeah, you're probably right.", Peter said with a deep breath. That was true. A person in Tony's position had no reason to lie about something like that, so he forced himself to press the insecurities to the back of his head in favor of going back out to patrol. He hadn't been out and about since the alien attack and having the wind in his hair again felt amazing.

The next twenty-four hours passed with ease. Peter spent some alone time scratching the curious itch that had come from some of the things he'd experienced from Tony's perspective. Doing some research _in the incognito window_ of his computer turned out to be... _educational_ but maybe left him with a few more questions than it answered but he wasn't going to ask. If Tony found out that he'd lied about seeing his more _passionate_ moments he would probably never look at him again.

He also spent some time with his aunt and did some catching up on his summer reading, all the while waiting with anticipation for Tony to contact him again. He kept telling himself that the man probably had umpteen things to catch up on, having been incapacitated for a few days and that there was nothing to worry about. Then with a deep breath, he slammed his book shut and eyed his suit that was still lying crumpled up on the floor by his window and smiled. There was no better distraction than having the wind in his face as he swung through the borough. 

After taking the time to let off some steam and expend some energy, Peter decided that he should probably swing over towards Ned's house. Other than assuring his friend that he was still alive, he'd ignored every single one of the other boy's messages since the mission. Knowing that he owed him an explanation, he was soon slipping quietly through Ned's bedroom window. 

"Peter! My dude, I haven't heard from you in days! I thought something had happened.", Ned whisper shouted as Peter removed his mask and went in search of the clothing he tended to leave there for instances just like this. Sometimes a mid-patrol visit was necessary and he couldn't exactly sit around Ned's house in his spider-suit. 

As Peter stripped down to his boxers and threw a t-shirt over his head, he laughed lightly. "Technically something _did_ happen.", he replied and as soon as he'd managed to pet his sweat pants up around his waist he gave Ned a basic rundown of his last few days. His explanation, being limited to the fight, the fact that memories had been shared and that Tony had said they could hang out more, leaving out every single detail. 

Ned listened with rapt interest as Peter finished up his story and then sat there for several seconds with his mouth gaped open. "So you saw, like, all of his _personal stuff_?", he asked and when Peter gave a half-hearted nod of his head, he almost fell off of his bed in anticipation. "Like what? You have to give me more than that, Peter!"

There were a few seconds that Peter contemplated how much he could tell Ned without breaking any sort of unspoken trust between himself and Tony One that said that personal matters wouldn't be broadcasted to just anyone. Then it crossed his mind that Ned wasn't _just anyone_. He was his _best frien_ d. It also crossed his mind that there was at least one thing his mentor _didn't even know that he knew_... and if he was being honest he desperately wanted to talk to someone about _that._ "I can't, I can't tell you all of it but um...", he replied with a flustered stutter. "I did see, you know... _something_." 

"Define _something_ ", Ned replied as he grabbed ahold of Peter's shoulder and shook him lightly. "You're killing me here, dude!"

Still unsure of whether or not he should be saying anything at all, Peter took a deep breath. "Like, sex kind of stuff.", he mumbled under his breath and sighed when he heard Ned quietly squealing in the background. "Like, I guess I sort of _had_ sex. Experienced sex? Is second-hand sex a thing? Nevermind don't answer--", he lamely added but was cut off by his friend's excitement.

"--Oh my god, that is so unbelievably awesome you for to see nake--", Ned said in breathy admiration but despite the quiet tone, Peter was talking over him within seconds.

"--shut up before someone hears you!", Peter said as he shoved his hand over Ned's mouth, just long enough to silence him. "Nobody can know about this! This is like, _Spider-man level secret_."

"My lips are sealed.", Ned replied with a wide grin. "...but you're going to tell me about it, right?"

Peter nodded his head and pulled his lip in between his teeth in a nervous gesture as he tried to work out how to explain what he'd learned. "It was... _interesting_."

"Interesting? I'm pretty sure that is not the word you're supposed to use when describing sex.", Ned returned with a frown. 

With a small grunt of frustration, Peter ran his hands through his hair and tried to elaborate. "Well, it wasn't exactly what I expected okay! I mean it felt...", he began, waving his hand in a circular motion while he tried to choose the best word to describe the experience. ".. _.nice_ but, uh... it was...um... different? ...you know what? Hang on.", he added, not wanting to say what he'd seen _out loud._ Instead, he opened the private browser on his phone and pulled up a few generic pictures from some random pornography sites. "Here, like this.", he said with a deep red blush to his cheeks at the mere memory, of the memory. It had been awkward and... well, he was thankful he'd been alone for that one.

Ned glanced through the pictures for just over a minute before looking up with his face still looking awestruck. "Woah... How are you so much cooler than me? It's not even fair.", he practically whined.

"Yeah, it's a real gift.", Peter deadpanned because it wasn't like he'd _asked_ for any of this kind of stuff to happen to him. He just happened to have the _weirdest luck i_ n existence. Meeting a radioactive spider, fighting Captain America, gaining a superhero mentor, fighting aliens...having a front-row seat to said superhero mentor's past... it was all just... well, his kind of luck. Then he shook his head as if that would be enough to clear his thoughts. "Can we talk about literally anything else, now?"

"Sure!", Ned replied with a smile but he didn't really change the subject all that much. He just started issuing rapid-fire questions that had stemmed from the previous conversation without actually pausing for an answer. "Have you heard from him again? When do you get to go back over to his house? Do you think he'll let you stay with him every other weekend? Oh my god, do you think he'd adopt you! Is--"

"--Ned!... I can promise you that he's not going to adopt me.", Peter interjected before the questions could digress any further. "...and no, I haven't heard from him but it's only been a little over a day.", he added with a shrug of his shoulder's hoping that the action would make the comment come off as though it weren't actually bothering him but this was Ned he was talking to. His best friend always knew when there was something bothering him and he was quick to offer a potential solution. 

"Maybe you should text him?", Ned suggested but Peter shook his head.

"I think I might give it a little bit longer.", he replied with a sigh. He didn't typically call or text Tony. The man always contacted him when he wanted him to come over or had some sort of question that required a more immediate answer. He didn't want to come off as 'needy', Besides, he'd not hung out with his friend in quite a while and was enjoying his company. "Hey, since I'm here, why don't we finish up the Lego, Ewok Village?"

The two friends spend the next couple of hours slowly building the lego set they'd started at the very beginning of the summer. Technically it shouldn't have taken them more than a couple of hours total but they always ended up messing and round the entire creation had been dropped more than once. It was fine though, the legos were really more of an excuse to hang out than anything else and when this project was finished, they would undoubtedly put their money together to buy another. Then just as Ned took the honor of adding the final brick, Peter's phone began to buzz on the floor beside him.

Assuming it was May wanting to know when he would be home, Peter picked up the phone immediately and was surprised to find that it was Tony who had sent him a message. More so that it was a mundane, non-work-related message. ' _Hey, kid. I just finished binge-watching that ridiculous sitcom you've been talking about and that's two hours of my life that I'll never get back. I blame you_.', it said and he nearly laughed out loud, causing Ned to practically grab his phone out of his hand.

After showing Ned the message so that he could actually respond, Peter typed out several replies before settling one saying, ' _You actually sat down and watched four episodes at once?_ ', because he was having trouble picturing that. Once he'd sent it there was very little pause before the next message came in.  
  


' _Try, six. There are no commercials on Netflix, kid._ ', he read out loud so that, Ned wouldn't have some sort of a conniption while he waited to see it for himself. However, the next message that popped up on his phone he read to himself. ' _Want to come by on Friday? Maybe Spend the weekend?'_ , it read and when he smiled Ned was back to begging to know what was said. 

"Calm down, Ned!", Peter laughed. "He just wants me to spend the weekend. It's not that serious.", he added even though he too was excited. There had been no ' _so we can._..' attached to the message. It sounded like Tony just wanted him to come over for the sake of coming over and that was far more exciting being asked to join in on a project or some training and he replied quickly that he would be there.

Seeing as the invitation had come on a Wednesday afternoon, Peter waited with anticipation for Friday to arrive and during that time, Tony had started texting him at least once a day. Never anything of importance just a quick, ' _Hey I found and ice cream shop I think you might like._ ' or ' _You should have heard the stupid thing Cap said today_.', but appreciated every single message.

When Friday afternoon finally rolled around and Peter was in the backseat of Happy's car, he found himself getting more and more anxious. While the casual messages had been nice this would be the first time they would be seeing each other face to face since the entire memory swap ordeal and all promises aside, he was still somewhat worried that things would be uncomfortable and at first they kind of were. Peter shuffled into the penthouse where Tony was waiting for him and for a moment all they did was smile at each other. 

"Hey there, Pete. How've you been?", Tony finally said, sounding a little more stiff than he'd meant to. 

Nodding his head and shuffling on his feet, Peter attempted to avoid his mentor's abnormally cool gaze. "I've been, um, I've been good, Mr. Stark. You?", Peter strutted out in response, instantly realizing that he sounded like the day they'd first met, rather than like he'd literally fallen asleep in the man's arms less than a week prior. It seemed that everything he'd not wanted to happen was happening and he had no idea how to fix that.

"Just peachy.", Tony replied before realizing how ridiculous the situation was becoming. They were both standing there trying so hard to _act naturally_ that neither of them was actually managing to hit the mark. In fact, they were so far from acting any kind of _normal_ that it was almost painful, making him roll his eyes. He was the adult there and he needed to suck it up and act like it. "Oh for Christ's sake, this wasn't supposed to be weird. Just get over here and hug me or something.", he eventually said as he held his arms out expectantly.

Sighing in relief at those words, Peter rushed into Tony's embrace and practically breathed him in. "I missed you.", he whispered when he felt Tony's chin fall on top of his head. 

"Yeah, I missed you too.", Tony admitted before releasing his hold and looking the teenager over with a smile. "Did you eat dinner yet?", he asked already knowing the answer. Any time the kid spent the night they ordered in and watched a movie before heading down to the lab to work the night away. 

Peter smiled back brightly at the question. "Of course not! I was waiting for you. Can we order Indian? ...with extra naan?"

Chuckling at how quickly they'd managed to bounce back after the less than ideal greeting, Tony nodded his head approvingly. "Sure, kiddo. I'll get that ordered while you go pick what we're going to watch while we eat."

After that everything fell into a normal rhythm. Though there were admittedly a few small changes to their old routines. One being, that after the empty food containers had been thrown out, Peter's body fell comfortably against Tony, who's arm reached almost instinctively over the boy's shoulders without a word. For a while, they just quietly enjoyed each other's close company. 

"Hey, Mr. Stark? Do you think we would have ever gotten, you know... here... without the alien magic or whatever?", he asked out of curiosity once the credits had begun to roll. 

Tony took a moment to give the question some thought before taking a deep breath and nodded his head seriously. "I'd like to think that we would have.", he replied because he really did want to think that they would have. He just wasn't sure how long that would have taken without the unnatural push.

"Me too.", Peter returned with a small upturn of his lips. "I just, I wonder if it was, sort of like the crazy memory stuff that happened was a good thing. I mean, not a _good thing_ but a... maybe, like a good thing that came out of a bad thing? Nevermind, Mr. Stark.", he rambled as he tried and failed to express his gratitude for the results of the crappy situation. He just couldn't seem to get the right words out. Though, as always Tony seemed to know what he was trying to say.

"I know what you mean.", Tony said softly as he leaned his head down so that his cheek rested on the top of Peter's head. Then after a few seconds of silence, he sat up and cleared his throat. "...and speaking of knowing what you mean... I was thinking that maybe you could stop calling me 'Mr. Stark'.", Tony announced and was met with a look of confusion.

"How does that have anything to do with what I just said?", Peter asked with perplexity.

"It doesn't. I just needed a segway.", Tony smirked. "Now, seriously. I'm pretty sure that we're way past formalities at this point. I think you can drop the whole 'Mr. Stark' bit and start calling me, Tony."

"Do I have to?", Peter whined exaggeratedly though there was a tiny part of him that thought it would be pretty cool to be on a first-name basis with Tony Stark. It was nearly as cool as being invited to work in his lab and spend entire weekends in his home. Ned would flip his shit when he found out.

Chuckling lightly, Tony looked towards Peter who had sat up beside him. "I mean, it _is_ my name. Is it really that hard to call me by my _literal_ name?"

"Yes.", Peter deadpanned but he could only hold a straight face for so long. "...but I'll try... Tony."

"Great.", Tony clipped before pulling the boy back into his side and looking at his watch. "It's getting late so I guess we have a decision to make... Are we going to go to bed like reasonable human beings or are we going to go back down to the lab like the sleepless geniuses that we are?", he asked, assuming that they would end up in the lab since it had been a while. That was the expectation anyway but Peter always had a way of dodging expectations in the best ways.

"Or... the lab could wait and we could stay right here and watch another movie.", Peter grinned. "With ice cream.", he added already knowing there were several pints in the freezer. There always was.

"Or we could do that.", Tony conceded and laughed when Peter scooted in and pulled the blanket, from the back of the couch, up over his legs. "Now, get off of me.", he said as he playfully shoved the boy towards the other side of the couch. "Apparently I have to scoop us some ice cream.", he added with a fond smile and that was how they spent the rest of the night because Peter was right. The lab could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! I really hope you liked it! I know the end of the second chapter where they're talking about drugs, particularly about Captain America's hypocritical speech, was my favorite part. What was yours? 
> 
> I've never asked that in the notes before! Which is weird because it's the first thing I ask my husband when I make him read this crap for me. Hahaha! (Which, because I know someone will ask, his favorite part is the conversation between Ned and Peter at the end.)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!!💕❤


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